a small glimpse of Heaven

Two days have passed since what appeared to be a disaster ended up being a blessing. I've moved through the moment and had time to reflect. It's actually quite a story that came upon me without any notice. Would you like to hear about it? Stay tuned. Like me, I hope you can see a small glimpse of Heaven in a situation that should have been an unjust disaster.

After days and weeks of preparing to move from Upstate SC to Auburn, Ala, we had made progress on plans to pack, sell, give away, and toss household goods. We then closed flawlessly on the house, which carried it's own set of stress. It took much of the day to load the truck, using a crew I had hired locally, hoping they would work out well. They did beautifully. The truck was so full I had to give the loading crew things like a bicycle, lawn mower, yard tools, etc. that I wanted to take but had to leave. The cleaning ladies came, made the house pristine, took away the last set of garbage and more household goods that I couldn't take. That all went well. After all of this effort, I got to where I saw my household goods as just stuff.

The biggest challenge (I thought) laid ahead. I must drive a fully loaded 26 ft rental truck 300 miles. This part of the move brought on worry and prayer from most of my family. I got up early Sat morning to beat the traffic in Atlanta. Five hours later I arrived at the storage facility in Auburn to unload the truck into storage units I had thoughtfully procured to store household items until we move into the new house in Dec.

The part of my plan I had the most confidence in was unloading in Auburn. I had contacted a moving company that had moved friends before and came highly recommended. I contacted the owner when I arrived by text, and he replied, "be there in 20 minutes." Whew, this journey is almost over. The plan had come together.

This is when the day deteriorated quickly and profoundly. As I waited out front of storage building for the mover, I noticed a young black guy walking toward me. No one spoke at first, then I asked,"are you here to help unload this truck?" He smiled and replied, "yes." I then asked the obvious, "are you alone?" His reply sent shivers down my spine.

"I read a hour ago that David (the head of the moving company) had put an ad out on Craig's List for help to unload a truck in Auburn today. I guess I'm the only one that has taken him up on the offer." There was no hand truck, no experienced crew, just one young strong black guy. We had never seen each other and were seemingly as different as two people could be.

For some reason, none of that mattered. We had a full truck and an empty storage facility and a job to reverse that. That's what brought us together, a mutual task, a shared challenge. There was no talk about what I would pay and if he was even capable of the job ahead. We just started unloading the truck. Auburn, Ala in August. It was hot and muggy. We didn't even know each other's name for the first hour. Gail came to help where she could. There were 2 old white privileged people and one young black adult, who worked from day to day to live. 

We all recognized, we just had a job to do.

There were difficult moments, like a very large and heavy TV chest that was taller than the door to the truck and the storage room. It took us many tries and 30 minutes to finally get it in place in storage. The greater the challenge, the more the three of us came together. ALL WE HAD WAS TRUST. No one questioned anything.

Through the chatting around the work, we found that we had gone to the same schools in Montgomery (many years apart). His aunts, uncles and parents had gone to the same high school as I did. We relished talking about what we had in common and didn't notice what was different. Sometimes he would make a suggestion on how to solve the problem ahead and I would subordinate to his lead. Other times it was the exact opposite. No pride, no fear, no angst, no pecking order. Just 2 old white privileged folks and a young black guy trying to make life work.

As we saw we were close to finishing, I said, "would you like to get paid in cash or by check?" He said, "cash please." There was no mention of amount. The four hours and the job were not a transaction but a shared job to do. When he was not looking, I asked Gail to go closest ATM and get $300 in cash. She returned about the time we were completing the job. The main feeling of the moment was, "we did it." Together, we shook hands and acknowledged a "job well done."

I then said, "is $300 sufficient for your work?" His eyes got real big, but not as big as his smile. He felt so blessed. I think that's more than he expected by 2 or 3 times. His smile blessed me and Gail. Three people, one was a stranger. We only had trust to hold us together. It was enough.

He was blessed by a reward that was based on the generosity of the reward giver, way more than he thought he deserved. We were blessed by his smile. The thought of the injustice of being let down by the moving company was not even on my mind anymore.

Maybe this is how God puts unexpected, spontaneous small glimpses of Heaven in our life? What caught us by surprise and looked insurmountable, a situation that seem unjust at first to all of us, became a blessing because of trust.    

God calls us all to be faithful, not fair, not productive, not capable, not anything, but faithful when nothing appears right to our eyes .....

her eyes said it all

"How can eyes talk?" we might ask. Its not uncommon to mix the senses to understand how we receive insights from others and the world around us. Most of us have said at one time or another, "I can see it in your eyes." Eyes have a way to tell us things that words cannot express, don't they?

Such it was over 15 years ago as I watched mother struggle with the horrific disease called dementia. What an injustice it was to her that nature was robbing her of all she had gained over almost 80 years. She so feared Alzheimer that she would try to convince the doctor she had Parkinson disease as she felt the symptoms coming on. Everyone who knew her shared the sense of unfairness she must have felt. She had just cared for dad in his late life and looked forward to returning to her own active life after his passing. 

Toward the end I remember sharing with family and friends that I no longer visited with mother, I simply visited her. It was during one of those visits, late into the disease's thievery, where I saw something amazing. It seemed as if God wanted me to know mother in even a deeper way, a way only her eyes could tell me. She was completely disabled. Couldn't talk, eat or even respond to the question, "how are you?" She could only sit in the wheelchair and look up into the air. To the casual observer, it was just the way her head hung as she could not control her posture. She seemed totally detached and unaware. She no longer could interact with me or anyone, she had nothing to offer the world, but more interestingly, it became apparent to me she no longer needed anything from the world.

It was in this state that mankind would consider her useless, less than a person, worthless and lost to all things and people around her. Yet, it was in this moment her eyes said to me, "I am fully in God's presence, nothing in this world distracts me from my time with Him, my soul is enjoying God like crazy." What seemed to the world an injustice for mom, was right in God's sweet spot. Her identity had moved from a white woman in Alabama in the late 20th century to a child of the King. It wasn't that she had not been God's child, but it was so fully apparent to her. This is what she told me with her eyes.

This could just remain a story of one woman, whom I witnessed God transform her identity and bring fully unto Himself. If we stop and pay attention, there is a larger lesson here. After all, that's what life in this world is for. This world is finite, temporary and visible. God desires to form us and inform us, not leave us in our social identity. God is always pointing us to our identity in the Heavenlies. Christians live there now but get too distracted by how the world defines us to see it.

Like unwelcome disease, in some strange way the injustices of this world are not as much a problem for man to fix than they are opportunities for God to use. He's plenty capable of handling anything us puny humans think we must do. The injustices of nature and bigotry and bullying and seeing people as non-people are right in God's sweet spot. Its in these moments that we see more clearly God's divine plan. The fact that injustice on a human plane disgusts us is good. WHAT? How can injustice be good for us? It's in seeing the terrible aspects of injustice that we can more fully appreciate the cross. The terrible taste of injustice left in our mouth from what we see it in this world points us to the most grievous injustice of all, Jesus willful march to the cross. Through the lens of the unfairness of disease or racial injustice in the world, we see in the injustice of the cross the loving hand of God. We fall down. We fall deeper in love with Him. Our hearts are broken and turned toward Him.

What greater step can we all take but to move past the distractions of this world because its not fair and doesn't work well to see the outstretched arms of a loving God? 

My visits to mother were never the same again. I no longer pitied her. I no longer looked with disdain at the injustice of her disease. I envied her. I saw my mother closer to her Father, and I longed for the time I too would not be so distracted by the things of this world. Injustice looks terrible and in man's eyes it is. Yet, injustice can be a wonderful thing too, especially when it ushers into my soul the song, "when I survey the wondrous cross."

Her eyes said it all ....

Who is driving the justice bus?

 Ever since I heard the words, "justice is man's preeminent concern," in a Ph D Org Psychology class, I have been curious about its implication for Christians. The field of psychology is very clear on the meaning of justice. It is based on social exchange, which is the basic human need for balanced exchange or reciprocity. I researched justice in writings of antiquity and found the same idea. It's been the same forever, until now. The current narratives on justice are way off base. No social justice advocate demands reciprocity. The justice bus has left the station claiming those who have not, should get more and those with a lot, should give away what they have to those who have not. So, my first issue was how meaningless the public cry for social justice was in terms of what justice means historically. 

Of course this bothered me some, but not near as much as watching the Christian church try to catch up with the justice bus and become its driver. I had been quite watchful of how justice was represented by the church and worldview ministries. The epiphany I had when I heard the words about mankind's obsession with justice was, "that's why man cannot embrace grace." You see, justice is human nature seeking equilibrium, grace is a disequilibrium where God's justice does not lead to giving man what he deserves. The human condition cannot handle disequilibrium. Jesus emptied Himself of His privilege to be equal to God, humbled Himself by taking on the form of man, and going to the cross (unjustly, for He did nothing wrong) to take care of God's justice. God is still just, but He found a way through His love to satisfy His justice.

This is where I stay in hot water with the institutional church and most Christians, who tend to see justice the same way society does.

Man's deeply seated idea of justice just doesn't fit with grace. In fact man's desire to produce justice is at the heart of the fall. I blogged about this in "and the serpent said." I can't let this go for some reason. I see it as core to why Western society doesn't see the church any differently than the secular world. In fact they see the church behind when it comes to justice. That may be why church conferences lead with the theme, "the church has fallen behind in the cultural battle against injustice."

The church wants to drive society's justice bus?

Here's what I do that makes most Christians, especially pastors, shun me. I just ask questions about soundbites popular in both secular and Christian narratives. Like this

“do justice” (is this one of the 10 commandments? Where does Jesus mention justice? Is justice a ‘fruit of the Spirit’?)

 "large swaths of the church still do not see ‘doing justice’ as part of their calling as individual believers."  Tim Keller on Biblical justice - do you realize that God's justice was compelled to destroy Babylon (secular society)? Is that what "doing justice" is?  

“all men are created equal” (in what way?)

“that’s not fair” (why should it be?)

“fair share” (who determines ‘fair’?)

“what’s right about rights?”  (where do rights come from?)

“what’s right, what’s wrong?” (who is the judge?)

Asking these questions about oft used cliches can begin to introduce a view of justice from God's perspective. To begin to move others to a Kingdom view of justice (starting with the church), we can go see what the Bible actually says. Here's a few examples:

And the serpent said .. “you can be like God. You can be the judge of right and wrong.” Isn't this known as 'The Great Mistake,' which leads to spiritual death?

Jesus said, “Those that are put down and put out by the world because they identify with me are so very fortunate (blessed – makarios).”  Where’s the justice in this? Didn’t Jesus live a life of injustice?

Paul said, “Do not fashion yourself after the world’s system but have a transformed identity. This is your spiritual service”   wow, you mean identity transformation gets my Garden of Eden privileges back?

I can spend so much time on this topic (and have actually through many blogs). The bottom line is not that the secular world is so confused because it misapplies its greatest obsession. It's that Christians and their church fail to honor the Cross and the grace behind it. The Christian church buys in to the secular narrative (with a little religious twist) and distorts what justice really means. 

Here's a summary of my narrative on justice that I wish were taken to the world by the church:

“God alone is just. Inheriting my identity from Adam & Eve condemns me forever. I deserve it. I want to be THE judge. I'm obsessed with 'doing justice.' I’m doomed. That’s His justice. We are ALL CREATED EQUAL in this regards, no matter how feeble or fabulous the flesh is. It is God’s mercy and grace (agape love) on the cross that privileges me against all odds. My righteousness (God’s verdict of approval) is imputed on me from Jesus’ righteousness (God’s just response to His Son’s perfection). 

To put man in charge of God’s justice and make justice achievable by man’s pursuit diminishes the wonder of the Cross. My generosity, kindness, patience, mercy and such extended to others is not ‘doing justice’, but a natural response flowing from an identity in Christ."

Righteousness is the action of the judge (God) on my behalf not my actions on behalf of the judge (God).

My righteousness or what many think of as "doing justice" is “necessarily” appropriating God’s action that belongs to me (Luther's idea of 'necessity').

What do you think the main stream media would do with this? It can't be any worse than what they do to Christians who are trying to drive the secular justice bus.

Maybe you can get off that bus and carry the cross to the world? You might get a "WOW" rather than a yawn.

 

What say you?

 I have begun advocating a focus on trust rather than on truth. People seem to want to argue or debate what is true. We never really get anywhere with this approach. I find it more helpful to ask, "who or what do you trust for what you believe and why, not what do you think is true."

While I believe there is one truth in most aspects of life, people can never resolve what it is. No one can prove anything. Science is helpful in many ways, but it mainly confirms what we believe, it never settles the debate. It's never been more obvious than with current events around the corona virus. Before that it was climate change. Economists have never settled on the one true model for growing the economy. And so on ...

What sits beneath what we think is true is the biases we trust. These are the basic foundations of belief we depend on without question. So, when someone wants to argue a point on what they believe, I try to move the debate to who/what they trust for this belief. This becomes especially the case about spiritual or moral ideals people cling to. Most of my life there were attempts to prove God exists. In fact this has been an ongoing debate in the Western world for a thousand years, maybe more. 

Recently I was teaching this principle, "its not what we know that matters but who/what we trust," when a friend said, "can you give us an example? Ca you tell us why you trust God?"  Fair question.

Here is what I put together on what I trust God for my identity in Christ:

“The Holy Spirit has revealed to me God’s presence and love for me. The Scriptures are more than just words, I know that I know they are His words about who He is, His Kingdom and who I am. These revelations seem reliable because they are confirmed consistently by reason and emotion. What I see around me strengthens my trust, not by proving, but by pointing in tangible ways to the invisible and eternal ways of God.

It makes sense to me that all humans are futile in judging right and wrong, in producing outcomes in this world that satisfy the soul, and in fulfilling passions of the heart on their own. It makes sense that I am privileged to receive from Him all provisions of the Heavenlies. It makes sense to me that something is real only when it is true everywhere all the time. It makes sense that the only thing that really matters to me is His Kingdom. It makes sense to me that credible people throughout history have consistently testified in their own lives these same insights God has revealed to me.  

I find my deepest love is for Him and His Son Jesus. With Him I Wow all the time. With Him I do not feel alone, fearful, abandoned, or inadequate. I find a ground swell of emotion as He let’s me know He’s here and involved. I find great comfort in knowing in my heart that He is sovereign, and everything in the visible and invisible realms are exactly as He wills. 

I do not trust God FOR anything He does for or to me. I trust HIM without reservation.”

Notice this is way different than proving God or anything about Him, for no one can ever do that. Faith is a trust that comes about from unobservable evidence. Everyone has a faith. Everyone relies on unobservable evidence for that faith.

When asked for why you trust whoever or whatever you rely on, what say you?

 

 

and the serpent said ...

"Your'e just wrong on this," one says. "No, you're wrong, I'm right," the other fights back.

How often do you her this? We think it's a relatively new argument because of the recent increase in volume on morality debates of justice, CV, economics, climate change, marriage, abortion, and on and on. The facts are, this has been going on since the famous deal Adam and Eve made with the serpent.

"for God knows that when you eat of the tree of right and wrong, your eyes will be open and you will be like God with regards to knowing right and wrong."

So, what is central to mankind's inheritance from first man? The desire to be God's agent for truth about right and wrong. "You shall surely die" was God's warning to Adam about taking over God's job to know right and wrong. Adam and Eve didn't physically die, but they died spiritually. They became forever separated from fellowship with God because of their desire .... until God sent Jesus to rescue us of this terrible place Adam and Eve left us in.  

In a recent article by Tim Keller, "A Biblical Critique of Secular Justice and Critical Theory," he explains how throughout history movements have grabbed power by becoming THE "truth-claimants." Keller goes on to say that when any human claims something is harmful to others or unjust, they are making a claim to judge the truth that determines the rightness of their position and the wrongness of others'. Here's where the power grab occurs. Keller says, "the main way power is exercised is through language. Language does not describe reality, it constructs or creates it. Power structures mask themselves behind the language of rationality and truth." 

Now Keller is primarily explaining how cultural movements over time have usurped the Christians' advocacy for a moral and just society. The competition for truth has been at the center of the struggle for power over society for ever. I can agree with Keller's lengthy and in depth treatise on this topic.

Keller is capturing the predominant view of the current Western evangelical Christian Church. Here is where I have a problem with Keller and what is considered "normal language" of the church in our times.

It seems that the Christian language agrees with secular ideas in many ways but is a different, more improved way of being a "truth claimant.," a competing grab for power. It seems to me the demands for God's justice, morality and virtue is different than the secular, but not really. It seems that the claim Christians make to fix the wrong in the world according to God's ideas of right and wrong is giving in to the exact same response Adam and Eve had to the serpent. Seeing man's job as one in which we bring God's Kingdom to earth is the inheritance we have received from first man. 

Some people study the Bible to confirm existing deep seated beliefs (core assumptions). I attempt to study the Bible to transform my core assumptions. God only knows if I do. Here's what I found, not as a "truth-claimant", but as a faithful child.

Jesus didn't come to earth to pump up God's people to be better Pharisees. He had His harshest words for them. He didn't come to improve on Aristotle's idea of a happy life through personal and community virtue. He rebuked EVERY tenet of Aristotle's teachings.

Jesus came NOT to judge a world on what is right and what is wrong, but to provide for God's people a pathway back to fellowship with Him. His people are left on this earth for a brief time to point the flawed and dying world to God and His Kingdom. God desires our faith, not our actions (see how Jesus answers the question of His disciples on 'what is the work of God?'). Trusting Him will result in Godly actions, but to a different end than is often professed to Christians by preachers and teachers. The life of a Christian will point to a King and a Kingdom where we are welcomed and blessed. We show the lost world that justice and rights in this world are NOT what defines or fulfills us. As Kingdom dwellers, we are heavenly fortunate (makrios), not earthly happy (eudaemonia). Our goal (telos) in life is God's goal in life, to glorify Him.

What a person believes about Heaven and earth will form and inform every aspect of the person's soul, the center of thought, feelings and choices.

You might be saying by now, or at least thinking this, "aren't you grabbing power by claiming a truth in this blog that competes with claims of others?" 

Could be ..... That's for you to ponder ....